20 Words Your Italian Grandparents Used That Don't Exist in Italy

Comments · 608

• MU

  @MulberryStreetMemo · 2 weeks ago · pinned

  One thing I couldn&apos;t fit in the video: a full century after Italy unified in 1861, 26 million Italians still only spoke dialect. Standard Italian didn&apos;t become the common language until television did it, starting in 1954. Your grandparents left before that happened. They carried the old language with them, and it never had a reason to change.<br><br>If you want to go deeper into these stories, I put together an ebook with more of the history, the words, and the world your family came from: <a href="https://mulberrystreetmemo.com/">https://mulberrystreetmemo.com/</a><br><br>Which word on this list did your family use the most?

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• FR

  @fredcilano899 · 2 weeks ago

  The one I heard a lot was: Stat ta zeit. Shut up. or monga, stat ta zeit. My grandmother was from Naples and I heard the top 10 on that list many times.

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• PA

  @PasqualeFerrara-m6g · 2 weeks ago

  Thanks for that video. I was smiling &amp; laughing through the whole thing. 76 yrs old, born &amp; raised in Brooklyn. My neighborhood talked like that. I moved to Long Island in 1980. Macaroni became pasta, etc. &nbsp;My first neighbor I talked to said, “oh you must be from Brooklyn” and I asked , “why?” &nbsp;He said because you said stoop, these are steps. Ooofah, what kind of game would that be; step ball? 🤨

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• FE

  @FeliceChiapperini · 2 weeks ago

  We used &quot;skeeve&quot; as a verb but also as an adjective. Something &quot;skeevy&quot; was dirty or disgusting. We also had the greeting &quot;hey skizeetch!&quot;, which I believe came from &quot;che si dice&quot;. The word for eggplant &quot;moolinyan&quot; took on an entirely different meaning ;)

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• GU

  @guypalumbo7892 · 13 days ago (edited)

  In 1887 a fridge? A television? Mannaggia!

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• VA

  @Valicroix · 2 weeks ago (edited)

  Most of these words were buried deep in my subconscious, but the ones that immediately transported me back to my grandma&apos;s kitchen on Yates Ave in the Bronx in the 1950s would, in order, be pastafazool, madone, agita, stunad, goombah, va fangool (which as kids, we weren&apos;t allowed to say because it was considered profanity) and paesan.

  21

• JO

  @joecataldo3853 · 2 weeks ago

  My Family is from Basilicata. Yes, alot of these word I had heard in the 1960s. But the Adults, never spoke in Italian in front of the children. So the kids (2nd generation) never learned to speak Italian. They were being Americanized! Sad. I have been learning Italian for the last 20-years. It&apos;s out of respect to my grandparents...Thank you for the video, I enjoyed.....

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• BR

  @BryanDeBiase-b6w · 2 weeks ago

  Brings back memories of my dad and his family around the table after a meal and talking in Italian so us kids didn’t know what they were talking about! Gossip etc.

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• LO

  @louisd95714 · 1 day ago

  This brings back so many fond memories for me when I was goring up. Thank you for this.

• XP

  @Xpian · 2 weeks ago (edited)

  I remember my godmother, from Caserta, yelling at her children: «Maronna Sant! V&apos;aggia ritta tanta volt! Nun &apos;o fagite aggussì!» I asked Mum what she&apos;d said. In English Mum said: &apos;The gist is: &quot;Holy Mother of God! How many times have I told you: Do not do that!&quot;&apos;

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• LO

  @Louaye12784 · 3 days ago

  This video is spot on. &nbsp; Great job.

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• DG

  @DG-uh8uv · 13 days ago

  OMG! This brings back such great memories and it’s really interesting to understand the origins of how these words morphed into words that we use now. Thank you.

  5